I'm still toying with the concept of "practice" and why there is so much resistance to the idea. When I think about practicing, I get that dread feeling that there will be something painful attached to the action. I don't know where that comes from, but I'm sure a number of my students suffer from the same effect. From years of lessons, I equate practice with work, difficulty, things I don't want to experience. It feels heavy, the word "practice." "Practice makes perfect." "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" You know--"practice" times three. I'll bet you can think of many more slogans like that. If you ask, I'm sure many people would consider "practice" to be drudgery. Why would anyone want to do anything that felt like drudgery?
I never wanted to be perfect, I just wanted to do something I loved: PLAY music. Key word, play. I never cared about Carnegie Hall, or any other venue. I cared about making sound, beautiful sounds, ugly sounds, imitating sound. I loved being captivated by a musical idea and trying to get it right. Yes, that's right, I loved practicing. But I never wanted to hear that word, even now.
I recently read a wonderful description of the process of practice, but the word never appeared. Instead, the word "rehearse" appeared. Now, as a student of all the performing arts, I can tell you that no matter how difficult it might be, rehearsals are exhilarating. Dance me into the ground, make me repeat a scene until I dream it, ask me to play a phrase until I'm dizzy, I'll do it because I love the rehearsal. It's a word that implies participation in a process with an end result you can be proud of.
"Rehearse" is a word that will get me to sit down and "work it out." It feels positive and hopeful, as if you are going on a journey. It implies movement toward a goal, an end point. You can have fun on a journey. You can have fun with a process and Art is nothing but process. Learning the "art" of music is a process. There are techniques to be embodied which lend themselves to greater artistic competence, but at any level, I am convinced that we desire to make art because we love the process. "Play" means many different things to many different people. However, we love to "play" at certain activities. Play is wonderful. Play is process in action. It can have a point or it might be pointless, either way it's certainly fun.
"Play" is where we begin. "Play" is where, as musicians, we want to live. One of the definitions of play is, "to pretend to be; mimic the activities of." I love that. Some might express it as "fake it till you make it." The more you "fake it" the better you get at the activity. You gain experience. It is that experience that creates improvements, which hopefully leads to more curiosity and more experience. That's where you want to be as a musician. It's the land children live in and grown-ups have forgotten.
Every child who sings their heart out, or picks up an instrument is already a musician. They need to be guided carefully so as not to lose that curiosity and excitement. They need to be encouraged in the process and not made to feel fearful of their abilities. And by that, I mean that every attempt is a gain in experience and we can help them enjoy those gains, or kill the spark with negative judgments (not very playful). The process of repetition can be fun if it is approached in a playful manner.
The most heartbreaking moment I've had was being told by a young boy with a beautiful voice, "I can't sing." I'm sure that information came from an adult who was told that once upon a time. I encouraged him not to listen to anyone who told him he couldn't sing, because his ability to sing on pitch only needed experience and his voice was wonderful. His whole demeanor changed when he realized that someone actually believed in his abilities. I hope it sticks!
